PEWIT FLYCATCHER, OR PHOEBE. 
281 
our Phebes immediately commenced a new fabric, and 
laid 5 additional eggs in the same place with the first ; 
and, in haste to finish their habitation, they had lined it 
with the silvery shreds of a Manilla rope, which they 
had discovered in the contiguous loft over the boat- 
house. For several previous seasons they had taken up 
their abode in this vicinity, and seemed unwilling to re- 
move from the neighbourhood they had once chosen in 
spite of the most untoward circumstances. 
Towards the time of their departure for the south, 
which is about the middle of October, they are silent, and 
previously utter their notes more seldom, as if mourning 
the decay of nature, and anticipating the approaching 
famine which now urges their migration. In Massachu- 
setts the Phebe rarely raises more than a single brood in 
the season, unless, as in the instance related, they have 
had the misfortune to lose the first hatch. The young, 
dispersed through the woods in small numbers, may now 
and then be heard to the close of September, exercising 
their feeble voices in a guttural pliehe. But the old birds 
are almost wholly silent, or but little heard, as they flit tim- 
idly through the woods, when once released from the cares 
of rearing their infant brood ; so that here the Phebe’s 
note is almost a concomitant of spring and the mildest 
opening of summer ; it is, indeed, much more vigorous in 
April and May than at any succeeding period. 
The Pewee is 7 inches in length, and 9| in alar extent, Above 
dark dusky olive ; the head brownish black, with an erectile crested 
cap, like all the rest of this North American family of Flycatchers, 
with the exception of the Redstart (M. ruticilla). Wings and tail 
dusky, approaching to black, the former edged on every feather with 
yollowish white, the latter forked. Below pale whitish yellow, bright- 
er on the abdomen. Legs and bill wholly black. Iris hazel. The 
sexes almost entirely similar. 
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